"You should have seen it Yorktown," declared Hornet "they were firing at us, we were firing at them, then the girls from the Sakura Empire attacked the Sirens. We screamed, they screamed, we all kept shooting and shooting…."

"And then when the smoke cleared, we won," she added, falling down, after having retold the entire story of their latest mission to Yorktown, who was sitting in her classroom, along with Enterprise, drinking a cup of tea Juneau prepared for them.

"Was it as dramatic as Hornet puts it?" asked Yorktown to Enterprise with a chuckle.

"Yeah, it was just as crazy as she put it," she replied "sometimes I wonder how we survived that encounter."

"Well we did and now our fleet's got twice as bigger," said Hornet.

As much as Enterprise was glad that they won and that their fleet had indeed become stronger, her eye twitched a little at the idea of some of the new members joining the fleet.

"By the way," said Yorktown "I heard the Commander received a title at the start of the swearing in ceremony."

"Yeah, 'The Will of Azure'," said Hornet "that's the title Akagi gave him."

"Symbolizing how he's carrying on the goals and ambitions of the Azur Lane," elaborated Enterprise.

"Well, he has done a lot in the short time he came here," said Yorktown, putting her arm around Enterprise and pulling her in for a quick hug.

"From bringing my sister back, to giving me this wonderful job of teaching children, I'd say the Commander deserves that title."

"Hey let me in on that too," interjected Hornet, leaping forward to hug both Yorktown and Enterprise at once.

"And what about the other title the Commander got?"

The second title that Yorktown referred to here was 'Tearkjerker.' It stemmed from the fact that in the three operations conducted by the fleet, the Commander had unintentionally made someone cry. First was Hornet, second was Z23 and the latest victim was Akagi.

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For some reason he felt that the pillow he was sleeping on was a lot softer than usual. He didn't recall fluffing the pillow when he returned and he was sure Belfast hadn't replaced the linen either. Nevertheless, he was enjoying how soft the pillow was.

Perhaps, on instinct, he put his hand on the pillow. This was followed by him hearing "oh my."

At first he paid it no mind. Then, realizing that pillows were not capable of speech, opened his eyes and found that he was not sleeping on a pillow, he was sleeping on five tails.

"Commander I never knew you were such a straight-forward person," said Akagi, to whom the tails belonged to, further adding to his confusion.

"You should be a little careful with us Commander," she added, warmly smiling at him "we can't all be beasts like you."

"Good morning Commander," said Belfast, entering the room along with Z23.

"Commander we've got a lot of work to do today because of our integration with the Sakura Empire so I'll need you to…."

"Sorry, girls but I think you'll need to come back a little later," said Akagi

"The Commander was busy fluffing my tails," she added in a tone that suggested at the sentence meaning something else.

From their expressions, he could tell how their opinion of him was plummeting as each second passed.

"You letch," said Z23, saying what she and Belfast were thinking.

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Midway through their daily training routine, the Commander skidded back after blocking a strike to the chest from Belfast. Wasting no time, he quickly went on the offensive, attacking her with multiple sword thrusts.

'I expected him to be a little lazy,' thought Belfast, dodging the thrusts and drawing closer. She retaliated with a punch aimed at his gut, but the Commander used the flat side of his sabre to deflect the path of the attack.

He attacked her with an upward swing but Belfast quickly leapt back, landing on her hands and spun her legs out to keep him from getting closer. Just as she was getting to her feet, she saw him charging her again with another thrust and readied herself.

'Given how popular he's become over the past few weeks, I expected him to be enjoying the new fame. Yet here he is, doing his due diligence,' she thought, while he drew closer.

Belfast was surprised when the Commander threw the sabre at her, in an attempt to blindside her. She was able to react in time and deflect the blade. But in that time, he closed the distance between them, then spun around and knocked her off her feet.

Although Belfast recovered from the strike, when he raised her head, she saw him pointing his sword at her.

"So that day has finally arrived when you bested me in battle," she said, smiling at him.

"You're being nice to me," he said, reaching down and helping her up "we both know if this were an honest fight, you'd floor me in five seconds."

"True, but at least we know you've fully adapted to fighting with one arm."

"Commander," said Belfast "would you mind if we sit here and relaxed a little?"

This was an admittedly odd request for her to make, given that she never asked anything from him. But since it was the first time she asked something of him, he had no intention of saying no.

"Belfast," he said, a little later.

"Yes, Master?" asked Belfast.

"When you said you wanted us to relax, you actually meant that you wanted to relax," he said, referring to the fact that Belfast was resting her head on his lap.

"Shush now, pillows are not allowed to talk," she said, dismissing his argument immediately.

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After spending half an hour being a pillow, the Commander bathed and changed into his regular clothes. Once that was done, he went out of his room, heading straight for the cafeteria, ready for breakfast.

"Hey Hornet," he said, greeting the person in charge of everyone's food "what's cooking today?"

Just as Hornet was about to answer, Hornet noticed a hand grab the Commander by the collar and drag him away.

"It must be difficult being popular," she mused to herself then continued serving the others.

"Commander fancy seeing you here," said Akagi, "I was just about to step in and get some food and then I saw you, what good fortune."

"Since you're here Commander," she added "I'd like your help with something."

Akagi proceeded to take out a large four-tiered lacquered box and drop it on the table, the weight causing the table to shake.

"It seems that while I was happily busy preparing morning food, I seem to have made too much," she said, not noticing how the Commander's eyes nearly popped out at her version of 'too much food.'

"I've already eaten so I'm pretty full, could you help me finish this?"

"Wait, if you ate already why did you come to the cafeteria?" he asked.

"I'll even feed it to you," she said, completely ignoring the question.

"I knew you were up to something," shouted a voice from the right. Akagi, the Commander and everyone else saw Enterprise standing at the entrance, holding an equally imposing box in her hand.

"Here I was thinking you'd gone back to your base, but instead here you are causing trouble for the Commander," she said, stomping her way towards the pair, not minding how concerned everyone else in the cafeteria became.

"I'm not doing anything," said Akagi, looking away "I'm simply giving the Commander something different to eat. Nothing wrong with trying new things."

"Well sometimes," she said, dropping her box of food on the table, causing it to wobble a little "there's nothing wrong with eating what you already know. There's a comfort in the familiar."

"But trying new things are more exciting," countered Akagi.

Seeing as the conversation did not involve food but, referred to something else, he thought it was best to leave. The Commander slowly and carefully slid out of the chair and was ready to walk away, when two hands grabbed him by the collar.

"You're not escaping this time," said Enterprise, glaring at the Commander, who shrunk under her gaze.

"Time to decide," declared Akagi "whose food are you eating?"

"What?" he shouted, feeling the same tension he did on the beach when the pair asked him to choose between one or the other "you can't expect me to eat all of this."

"Of course not," said Enterprise "you can't eat both the boxes, you can only eat one. So decide, which one you're going to finish."

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"You ate it?" asked Yorktown.

"Mmhmm," came the reply.

"All of it?"

"Mmhmm"

"From both the boxes?"

"I don't think I can eat anything for a whole week," he said, lying on the floor of Yorktown's class while the kids were busy running circles around him (which only made him woozier).

"Those two are back to their old tricks again I see,"

"What do you mean?" he asked, rising up and immediately regretted doing so.

"When they were young, Akagi and Enterprise were pretty competitive," said Yorktown "they'd always see who was better at this, who shot down more planes than the other, who hit the other more…. those sorts of things."

"That's great and all but why have they suddenly set their sights on me?" he asked, still unable to stand up. "I'm pretty sure Akagi hated me the first time she saw me."

"That's just the weight that comes with popularity," she said.

"Quick question Yorktown, you're pretty knowledgeable about a lot of people here. What can you tell me about Akagi?"

"Hmm, if I were to summarize her," she said, tapping her chin "I'd say that she is as cold as ice to her enemies but warm and kind to her friends. She is pretty passionate about what she likes and if there's something that catches her interest, she won't stop until she has it."

"Well that explains why she broke into my room in the morning," he said and Yorktown chuckled.

Just then, Yorktown noticed Juneau entering the room.

"Um, Commander," she said, addressing the rug on the ground "they know you're here."

At this, the Commander shot to his feet, panicking and looking for a way out. Then, he noticed the window.

"Please don't break the glass on your way out," suggested Yorktown.

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Cleveland was strolling through the base, reading a romance comic. She was particularly engrossed with how charming the guy of the story was.

'It's pretty nice how the two of them met,' she thought 'I wonder if I'll meet someone like that.'

"Nah," she said, "there's no way something that absurd would happen."

As if on queue, she saw someone open a window, leap outside and land on their feet. Cleveland watched in amazement as the scene playing out before her was exactly the one she read in the comic.

"Comman-, "she said, but he quickly put his hand over her mouth.

"Shhhh," he said, looking to the left and then to the right "you saw nothing."

Cleveland watched as he ducked into the nearby bushes. To make matters more confusing, she now saw Akagi and Enterprise leaping out the window as well.

"Ah, Cleveland," said Enterprise, turning to her, "have you seen the Commander?"

At this point, the girl was at an impasse. She could answer honestly and point to the bushes where he was hiding. If she were to lie though, she'd give him room to breathe a little but will later face the wrath of two very dangerous women.

"He went that way," said Cleveland, choosing the latter instead of the former.

"Thanks," said Enterprise.

"This is your fault you stupid eagle," chided Akagi "if you weren't so forceful with trying to make him eat your food, he wouldn't be running from us in the first place."

"My fault?" shouted Enterprise "I'm not the moron that broke into his room just to greet him when he wakes up."

"It was an act of loyalty."

"Shut up, you stupid fox."

As the pair drew further away, Cleveland sighed in relief. She now made her way to the bushes and found the Commander sighing in relief.

"Thanks Cleveland," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder "you really saved my butt this time."

"No problem Commander," she said, sitting next to him "by the way, why are you running away from Akagi and Enterprise?"

"I heard the story from Yorktown, apparently the two of them are long standing rivals. And now, for some unknown reason, I'm suddenly stuck being their tie-breaker."

"Then choose one of them," she said, with a shrug.

"I can't choose between them. Enterprise is level headed, calm, loyal, strong and fearless. Akagi is passionate, dedicated, focused, kind and caring."

"You noticed how they more or less have the same qualities?"

"Yeah…." He said, pausing at the strangeness behind the coincidence "that's weird."

"Ah, I got it," she said, having figured something out.

"Instead of choosing between either of them, why not choose someone else entirely?"

"Who?" he asked, seemingly oblivious to how popular he'd become.

Perhaps it was the fact that she was caught up in the romance of the comic she was reading. All right it was mostly because she was still interested in the romance of her comic book. That thought greatly influenced her decision.

"What about me?" she said, looking a little shy at the idea.

"Yeah, no," he replied, dismissing the idea almost immediately.

"Why not?"

"Because," he replied, putting a hand on her "you're my bro."

"What?" she asked, followed the sound of glass crashing in the background.

"Think about it Cleveland," he said "you're my buddy, a best friend, a confidante, the wingman, the guy who'd help me get back home when I'm stone cold drunk."

"But, but, I'm a girl."

"Yeah, but you have a very brotherly vibe to you. So you a bro to me Cleveland, Cleveland my brother, Clevebro."

Hearing this, Cleveland said nothing. Instead, she stood up and shouted "Enterprise, Akagi, he's over here."

"Cleveland!" he shouted

"I'm not your bro!"

"Cleve."

"I am not your bro."

"Clevebro"

"Not your bro."